Jab Harry Met Sejal (Music review), Hindi – Pritam

Posted by Karthik

From Shahid Mallya’s earthy opening to Sunidhi’s punchy hook, Radha comes beautifully alive with even that fantastic EDM line in the middle! In Beech beech mein, Pritam cooks up superb retro-funk, with a touch of jazz, while Arijit literally showboats the rendition with his falsetto. In Phurr, Diplo, Tushar Joshi and Mohit Chauhan join to deliver Pritam’s EDM mix that is as intriguing as it is bewildering! Safar has a highly engaging Clapton’esque guitar base that accentuates Arijit’s singing significantly as he sings about Imtiaz’s favorite subject – journey!

Hawayein is vintage Pritam! Arijit rules over this song as Pritam concocts a gently lilting tune. Pritam strips off the backgrounds in the film version to expose the melody better. Parinda is a scorching Punjabi rock mix that only Pritam could have conjured! Pardeep Sran swings through the song rendition incredibly, ably supported by splendid guitaring! The song’s other version has Tochi Raina in a labored form, though. Ghar seems like a fantastic tribute to Pancham, with Nikhita Gandhi breathing life into a melody that starts off like an antara, much like Pancham’s imagination! Mohit joins in later and makes it all the more Pancham-like!

Butterfly is the soundtrack’s weakest, with a generic Yash Raj-Punjabi sound. Raula does the trick in a similar genre; less Yash Raj and more heady Punjab, thanks to Diljit Dosanjh and Neeti Mohan. Nooran Sisters get a much better track in Jee ve sohaneya! They touch a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan high in the soulful sufi melody. That tinge of Latino in Yaadon mein, and Mohammed Irfan and Portuguese singer Cuca Roseta’s searing vocals help the otherwise maudlin song. Close on the heels of the magnificent Jagga Jasoos, Pritam ups the ante in Jab Harry Met Sejal, in what seems to be his best year yet!

Keywords: Jab Harry Met Sejal, Pritam, 300, #300

PS: We music lovers could do without the demonetization-level last minute secrecy over the release of a simple ‘complete’ soundtrack, and the misdirections of multiple, pointless remixes masquerading as being part of the soundtrack. This staggered, deceptive release of songs of ‘one’ film seems like a massive insult to the effort a composer has put in to assemble it since the initial, much-promoted songs get all the limelight and some of the best songs (like Parinda and Ghar here) are dependent on the film’s success to be heard and appreciated. If Pritam can walk out of Raabta for turning it into a multi-composer soundtrack without his permission, I hope he can at least let Shah Rukh Khan and Sony Music know how shabbily they have treated this incredible soundtrack (and Jagga Jasoos + T-series, of course).